Yesterday, a hearing was held in the appeal over a district court’s decision upholding the SEC’s conflict minerals rules – and two members of the three-panel U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit repeatedly expressed concerns with the rules. In this Cooley news brief, Cydney Posner summarizes the highlights of this WSJ article and this Reuters article, who both sent reporters to the hearing. And here is a Compliance Week piece and a Gibson Dunn blog…

Tune in today for the webcast – “The ‘Former’ Corp Fin Staff Speaks” – to hear former Senior Staffers from the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance Brian Breheny of Skadden Arps, Meredith Cross of WilmerHale, Marty Dunn of Morrison & Foerster, Tom Kim of Sidley Austin and Dave Lynn of TheCorporateCounsel.net and Morrison & Foerster address this latest development, as well as these topics:

Pretty funny video as this guy, Steven Crowder, looks up ponzi scheme on the SEC’s website and places a call to the SEC to discuss Social Security – but not by name (at 2:00 minute mark). Having been on that end of the phone when I served in Corp Fin’s Office of Chief Counsel returning calls, I think the SEC Staffer does her job admirably putting up with this guy…